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Hansen 2024 finds evidence of split attention cost and broader task interference in Misophonia when exposed to aversive sounds

In a 2024 study examining how misophonia trigger sounds affect cognitive and social judgments, Hansen found that individuals with misophonia reported higher discomfort ratings for both oral and non-oral sounds, particularly when the sounds were correctly identified, with the strongest effects for oral triggers. The misophonia group also showed slower response times on a basic gender judgment task across sound categories, including an unexpected slowing on no-sound trials, which the authors suggest may reflect cautious waiting to ensure that no sound was present. Faces paired with highly discomforting sounds were rated as less likeable by the misophonia group when the associated sound was correctly remembered, whereas failures of sound source memory were associated with average, nonsignificant differences in likeability, highlighting a cognitive appraisal component of misophonia. Face memory was generally worse for faces paired with high-discomfort and oral sounds compared to control or silence conditions, but this impairment was not specific to the misophonia group. Together, the results point to a split-attention cost and broader task interference in misophonia during exposure to aversive sounds, suggesting everyday burdens for multitasking and social evaluation, along with an unusual trend in which faces paired with low-discomfort sounds were rated as more likeable than novel faces (Hansen et al., 2024)